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Re: Exit node connection statistics




Jan Reister:
I would probably add your node to my ExcludeNodes entry.

I would like to see a discussion about this.

So you'd prefer using exit nodes that keep that information for their own? Why? Or do you blindly trust all other Tor operators until they show some "bad" behaviour?

I'm not a friend of two-classes knowledge, and what a Tor node operator can know, everybody can know. Else it's nothing but security by obscurity.

Can you explain what the threat scenario is for what I'm doing?

In order to advocate Tor it is said that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, and I agree in general. But I think we know too little about the usage behaviour to make this a strong argument. How much of Tor traffic is "illegal"? For me personally it would be fine if even 99% is some illegal file sharing or email-address harvesting, if in return just one Chinese blogger is rescued from going to jail. But for others it might be different. I think it's the wrong approach to just close our eyes and say "we don't want to know". Surveys on usage behaviour are not generally threatening the anonymity of the users but can help to make the Tor experience better.

My personal motivation is that I fully and actively support anonymity in the net, especially for people in authoritarian states, but I don't want to spend my time and efforts for people abusing Tor to download the latest movies because they don't have the balls to do it directly or for spammers who farm for email-addresses. So I'd like to get an idea how the ratio between the two use-cases is and if there is something I can do to improve the situation. I think everybody who supports the usability of Tor by operating a node has every right to try to gather some information about that. And I don't want to keep it for myself but share it with everybody.

I'm not argument-resistant. So tell me your views.

Best regards.